Commentary

A group of five people, dressed in professional attire, sit on chairs on a stage in front of a crowd, with a banner behind them reading “Governor Candidate Forum.” Four of the five people sitting on stage have their hands up to answer the question while a crowd of people watches in the dark.

No clear frontrunner for governor, but new poll names five with the best shot

A poll shows three Democrats and two Republicans have voter support percentages in the teens. The top two vote-getters in June will face off in November.

Dan Walters

A person in medical protective clothing, wearing a face mask and a hair net, pushes a hospital gurney through a hallway inside a hospital, viewed from an open door.

She spent six of her last years in arbitration with her HMO. Her husband’s still fighting the system

Arbitrators in medical disputes are supposed to be unbiased, but this couple suspected there is an incentive to favor HMO’s in arbitration.

By Stephen Martinez

Two people face each other as they speak: the person on the left has a happy expression and her arm to her chest, while the person on the right wears a grey suit jacket and glasses. Both people are standing in a park area on a sunny day. In the background is a fence to a baseball field.

A former political ally tests LA liberals’ allegiance to Mayor Karen Bass

Mayor Karen Bass isn't vulnerable on her right, but she may be on her left, as City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialist and ex-supporter, runs against her.

Jim Newton

A close-up view of a person's hand holding a sign that reads "We wants answers! No more deaths!" and they stand at the front steps of a building surrounded by other people holding signs.

California promised accountability for inmate deaths in jails. A year later, no results.

Lawmakers passed a law creating a state department to review inmate deaths, but it hasn’t completed a single death review in its first year.

By David Myers

Commentary

Commentary: Poll finds California voters don’t like gas tax hike

California’s top politicians and interest groups celebrated a few months ago when the Legislature passed a package of taxes and fees to pay for long-neglected improvements to the state’s transportation systems. The heart of the $5-plus billion per year revenue package is a 12-cent-a-gallon hike in gasoline taxes that took effect this month, just as […]

Dan Walters

• November 16, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Brown preaches carbon reduction, but does he do it?

Jerry Brown, like most of humankind, is a mixture of positive and negative tendencies, and sometimes they run together. The governor is a very smart man with a remarkable and admirable ability to soak up information and synthesize it into political policy, but sometimes it morphs into an air of intellectual and moral superiority and […]

Dan Walters

• November 15, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: California’s school war flares up on three fronts

Three recent and seemingly discrete events neatly frame California’s political and legal war over whether the state’s six million K-12 students are being adequately educated. The conflict pits the state’s education establishment against a coalition of civil rights groups, education reformers and charter school advocates over the “achievement gap” that separates poor children, particularly Latinos […]

Dan Walters

• November 13, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Could ‘Ecotopia’ fantasy become a reality?

Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 novel “Ecotopia” described a mythical nation carved out of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States – Washington, Oregon and Northern California – on the premise of environmental stewardship. As summarized in Wikipedia, “The book is set in 1999…and consists of diary entries and reports of journalist William Weston, who is […]

Dan Walters

• November 12, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Another reminder that there’s no free lunch

It’s doubtful whether more than a relative handful of Californians have heard of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. It is, however, one of state government’s largest activities – and a case study in political mismanagement. Currently, California employers pay about $6 billion in payroll taxes into the UIF each year. And currently, the state Employment Development […]

Dan Walters

• November 9, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Legislative employees should be in civil service

Eric Bauman, the state Democratic Party’s newly elected chairman, made an appearance before the Sacramento Press Club last week and, of course, the blowup over sexual harassment in and around the Capitol was a hot topic for questioning journalists. Bauman made some news during the joint event with his Republican counterpart, Jim Brulte, by suggesting […]

Dan Walters

• November 8, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Republican tax plan would hit California hard

Tax policy has become another conflict between Democrat-dominated California and the Republican-dominated federal government.

Dan Walters

• November 6, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Sexual harassment cases put heat on legislative leaders

Some may have believed – or hoped – that the furor over sexual harassment in and around the state Capitol would soon fade away. Nope. The initial letter complaining about harassment, signed by 140 women, has exploded with many more names and a spate of personal accounts. The Los Angeles Times, which broke the initial […]

Dan Walters

• November 5, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: As gas taxes jump, motorists may wonder where they’re going

California's new gas taxes will do little, if anything, to relieve traffic jams. Most of the proposed improvements won’t be obvious.

Dan Walters

• November 2, 2017

Commentary

Commentary: Garcetti’s opt-out for governor may have saved Villaraigosa

That sigh you hear is Antonio Villaraigosa’s relief that Eric Garcetti won’t be running for governor next year. Garcetti, the current mayor of Los Angeles, would have been a strong contender vis-à-vis Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the frontrunner in all polls. But the most immediate beneficiary of Garcetti’s weekend announcement of non-candicacy is Villaraigosa, his […]

Dan Walters

• November 1, 2017

California Voices

Viewpoints from across California